Since suicide prevention week just passed, the 2020 movie “All The Bright Places” just resurfaced on Netflix. I can say it was one of the most heartfelt, tragic, unique but beautiful movies that I have ever watched. 

“All the Bright Places” was written and directed by Elizabeth Hannah, Jennifer Niven, and Brett Haley.  Justice Smith and Elle Fanning also starred in it. 

The plot is based around two teenagers named Theodore Finch and Violet Markey, who are scared from their pasts. In the opening scene, Flinch is on a jog when he sees a girl standing on the edge of a bridge. Once he gets close, he realizes that it is Violet. So he decides to stay – and even gets on to the ledge with her, and tries to get her to come down with him. Eventually she does.

It turns out, Violet was on the bridge because she and her sister got into a car accident and her sister died. Once Finch finds this out, viewers get to see his overindulging character. Finch decides to make a song for Violet, to see if she is still alive at the end of the night. He tags her in it, so she can call him to take the post down. From there, that’s when the movie really begins. 

As the movie goes on, they get a project to go study and explore the wonders of Indiana. Violet agrees to be partners with Finch, under one condition: no cars. This is when their romance starts to begin.

He starts by taking her to the highest point in Indiana, which sounds cool, but it really isn’t. It’s just a rock in a field of trees. But they make the most of it.

Originally, Violet only agrees to doing two places to meet the requirements of the assignment. But Finch somehow gets her to do more. 

Throughout the movie, Violet starts to open up. Eventually, she agrees to get in a car with Finch. On their car rides, the conversations are interesting and emotionally intense. The more they talk, the more viewers get to understand each of the characters personalities and views on one another. 

Towards the end of the movie, Finch’s behavior starts to change. At first, he was this creative, big-hearted person, helping someone who felt out of place to find herself. But later, when Violet starts to ask him about his scars, which mostly came from childhood trauma, he starts to break down and shut the world out. 

He foreshadows the end of the movie when he talks about this story of a kid finding a gate to a place that no one has ever been. But the catch is that the gate is at the bottom of the lake.

Later on, Finch runs away from home, and no one can find him, not even Violet. It turns out he tried to find the place that no one has ever been, and committed suicide. 

The story of “All the Bright Places” is a beautiful tragedy, that will be relatable to most out-of-place teens. Honestly, I think the movie is not for everyone. But if you’re a fan of teenage romance and a well-written script, I think it’s a movie you should put on your watch list.